Aaaaaand...cue winter!

I guess it's old news by now, but the 22" snowfall we got a couple of weeks ago did make for some fun Kodak moments...well, in my case, Sony moments, though I did get a little irritated at how short the battery life was at 28 degrees. So the following took several tries and a few trips back inside to thaw the thing out, but I think the results were worth it.

The flakes started falling around 9:00 Friday night. This was the view out our front window about 12:45 pm on Saturday, Dec. 19th. It didn't stop coming down until 8 hours later.

Gotta hand it to my industrious neighbor, but I think I will add this to the many reasons why I will never own a dog.

This part was great. However, the mess in our front hall when they all came back in...and yes, the snow across the street really did come up to the hem of Aslan's skirt. Both she and Daisy were a bit intimidated by their inability to take a step.

We decided we'd better take the first foot off the car while it was still coming down. Thank goodness we had the other one in the garage.

The next morning, we had a lovely excavation block party. We have some really neat neighbors, a few of which were making rounds helping dig out anybody who was out there working.

The front door before...

...and after. Don't worry, Mom, I just took off my gloves to get the camera out.

Fortunately, my next-door neighbor didn't have any pressing engagements that day.

And of course, the slightly scary irony is that this took place two days before the official start of winter. Here's hoping for an early spring!

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

The tree is up, the stockings are hung, and I only have two presents left to buy. Well, plus the ones for the kids' teachers. Christmas gets a little more interesting each year with more kids in school...all three of their classes are having different gift donation programs, and two of them have a class book exchange. And while they don't generally sing Christmas carols at school, they have picked up some classics on the school bus, like the "Jingle bells, Batman smells" version of Jingle Bells. Hearing my very ladylike and rules-conscious (at least at school) six-year-old sing this at the top of her voice is amusing all by itself. The really funny rendition, though, is the one now sung regularly by almost-four-year-old Aslan, who is learning the real words in preschool for their holiday program, but who has trouble differentiating between the traditional verse and the one she hears from her big sisters, and who has therefore been singing for the past several days:

Jingle bells, Jingle bells,

Jingle all the way.

Oh what fun it is to ride

And the Joker ran away. Hey!

I sang it through with her several times in the car yesterday to try to help her remember the correct last line, but somehow the other one kept coming back. I guess a "one-horse open sleigh" is a little abstract for her. Should be an interesting preschool program!

Smoothie Move

One of the few disadvantages to being a mom, at least in my case, is that I have a tendency not to take adequate care of myself. Other than necessarily being quick on my feet to prevent kids from taking spills off of kitchen stools or knocking over the Christmas tree, I haven't been getting as much regular exercise as I'd like, especially now that I've let go my employee gym membership. At lunch, by the time I've got food in front of the kids I'm usually too tired and hungry to really cook myself something, so I do a lot of sandwiches and carrot sticks on the fly, and then have to try to find creative ways at dinner to get the whole family to get a balanced meal using the very short list of vegetables that everyone will eat.

But I'm pleased to report that I've found a new ally in the quest to get the requisite number of fruit and veggie servings into everybody, including me, on a daily basis: I'm becoming a smoothie junkie. I've always been a fan, but I've also been hobbled for the last 10 years by a low-end blender that whines better than it grinds, and then is a pain to clean. So this past week I upgraded to a fabulous machine that actually blends. Without becoming an infomercial for my new blender, my interest was caught by a demo suggestion of putting things like spinach in smoothies to help kids get the veggie servings they need. While I certainly want them to learn to like vegetables for their own sake, on a practical level I'm tired of having to fight every day to make sure an apple or some carrot sticks goes down with the sandwich or mac n' cheese. I let them try the demo smoothie and they loved it. So I got one, and now both they and I are having smoothies daily. Sometimes we have them at breakfast alongside the Cheerios; for lunch today I put together a concoction of strawberries, banana, orange, and a little yogurt, then threw in carrots, baby spinach and a roma tomato. A little apple juice for liquid and sweetness, and my kids sucked it down and begged for more. And this machine pulverizes the stuff so well I don't even get strawberry seeds stuck in my teeth. It's not going to solve all my nutrition issues, but it's a start.

Now, if I could just figure out a better way to work out at home...

Things I'm thankful for

Ok, so I'm getting way behind again in my goal of writing regularly. This holiday weekend seems like an ideal time to stop making excuses.

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Doc's extended family, many of whom gathered nearby for a mini-reunion. It was definitely an occasion for counting blessings.

My four healthy and beautiful children are blessings I thank God for on a daily basis. Who wouldn't be thankful for smiles like these! And in this case I am also thankful for Doc's ingenious aunt and uncle who came armed with an entire roomful of art projects to occupy the small fry in attendance. The beading, painting, and weaving opportunities actually kept about 20 or so under 10's nearly whine free for hours. That's pretty magical stuff.

Some people have to celebrate holidays alone. We had enough family to fill this room.

And some of them are even goofy enough to appreciate my sense of humor.

Yeah, 'nuff said.

Quite an occasion to appreciate a bounteous table. At this point I should also mention my gratitude that this was not my kitchen. Though with all the hands to help, cleanup really wasn't so terrible...

...especially with a few brave souls willing to help the kids work it off with a rousing game of Duck Duck Goose.

I also have to mention that at this time of year I am happy to be in a place where the leaves change color. I am also thankful that there are not this many of them in my yard.

I think the standout moment of the day for me, though, was this opening act at the traditional (for Doc's very musical family) potluck concert that accompanies any gathering. This was Bookworm's first performance outside our living room. I've enjoyed hearing her practice ever since she started lessons earlier this fall, but what really amazed me was her eagerness to get up and play in front of so many people--family, yes, but many of them were strangers to her at the start of the day. Bookworm's extreme shyness at speaking up, even in front of her classmates, was her teacher's one real point of concern at our recent fall conference, and a point we've been aware of for some time. Evidently this shyness does not extend to musical performance, much to my delight. Enjoy!

(Unfortunately, she started without any warning and it took a moment to get the camera out because of the toddler in my lap, so I missed the first few bars. My mistake, not hers. :)

This one takes the cake

In the car earlier today, the girls got into a discussion about what it means to be guilty. It all started with Aslan asking why the mayor of Lazytown, in a recent episode of her current favorite TV show, said that Sportacus, the hero of the show, was guilty. (Apparently, Sportacus had been accused of the crime of eating Miss Busybody's birthday cake.) The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me (a little confused--I didn't actually see this episode): "I'm not sure."

Aslan (knew the answer all along, was just checking to see if we were paying attention): "It means he ate the cake."

Me (trying to clarify): "Well, guilty means you really did whatever they said you did."

Aslan (sticking to her point): "No, it means he ate the cake."

Bookworm (loves to explain big words to the little 'uns): "Guilty means you're not innocent."

Doc (not about to let her get away with simply negating the opposite): "So what does innocent mean?"

Bookworm (cheerfully taking the bait): "It means not guilty."

Me (still trying to help actually produce a usable definition): "So can you explain what it means to someone without using the word innocent?"

Buzz (not about to be left out of the conversation): "You could use sign language!"

Me (still trying...): "And what if they don't know sign language?"

Buzz (could do this all day): "Speak Spanish!"

Aslan (frustrated, but refusing to be sidetracked): "No! It means he ate the cake!"

Actually, Aslan could turn out to have the makings of a first-class debater, if not a defense attorney. After all, anyone who knows anything about Lazytown knows that when it comes to sweets, Sportacus had to have been framed.